The present disclosure relates generally to electronic authentication. In particular, systems and methods of automatic electronic authentication via short-distance networks are described.
Electronic authentication is increasingly becoming a part of everyday life. Nearly everyone, it seems, is registered in a number of information system that require some form of electronic authentication. Common client devices that require authentication include personal computers, tablets, laptops, smart phones etc., and this list is only increasing. Furthermore, many web-based services require their own electronic authentication. Common forms of authentication include passwords, PIN codes and public and symmetric keys. Most of these systems don't share authentication data, and may have differing requirements for authentication input complexity and length. Thus, users must keep track of an ever-expanding array of passwords and PIN codes.
Systems for management of this array of passwords and pin codes are known as credential management systems. Known credential management systems, however, are not entirely satisfactory for the range of applications in which they are employed. One common solution is to simply use the same credentials (e.g. password or PIN code) to access multiple systems. The user is only required to memorize one or few unique credentials and uses them across the multiple systems. The weakness, however, of this approach is that if one single system is compromised, the security of all other systems is compromised as well.
Another approach is for the user to keep a written record of credentials, each of which is unique to each system. This is a relatively secure and private way of storing authentication data. The drawback, however, is convenience as it requires carrying a written record (e.g., notebook) of the credentials and manual input of a data. Furthermore, loss of the written record will result in the user being unable to access any of the many systems requiring credentials.
Yet another approach is local computer credential management software. Such software may encrypt authentication data to multiple system with a single credential and stores them on a local computer. Users need to memorize only a single master password to decrypt other credentials. One benefit of this method is convenience as existing credential management software usually automatically inputs credentials into other software systems. The drawback is that users typically need to enter their master password every time, or they must be cached in memory of the local computer.
Still another approach is cloud-based credential management service. It is similar to local computer management software, the difference being that primary credential storage is in a cloud and users need to authenticate via a credential management service to retrieve credential data for other services. The benefit of this solution is that data is accessible over the internet from multiple devices. The downside of this solution is that reliability and security of this solution depends on a third party in the public cloud. Furthermore this solution requires internet access in order to begin the authentication process.
Thus, there exists a need for credential management systems and methods that improve upon and advance the design of known credential management systems. Examples of new and useful credential management systems relevant to the needs existing in the field are discussed below.